Another World
by TheSoundDefense
Summary: A one-shot of an alternate universe in the Mega Man Battle Network series. What if Hub Hikari had survived, instead of dying as an infant? Reviews greatly appreciated.


"Lan, come on! It's time to get up!"

In a somewhat large, comfortable bed, a young brown-haired 11-year-old boy stirred sleepily, in response to the noise coming from a small computer device on his bedside table. It took a minute for his mind to awaken properly, but when it did his eyes suddenly opened and he sat up excitedly. He grinned and reached for the Personal Terminal, which he referred to as a PET like many others, and glanced at the figure inside.

"Morning, Megaman! Today's the big day!"

The figure inside was a computer program known as a Navigator, or Navi for short; he had a humanoid shape that resembled Lan, but he was covered in blue armor, and had green eyes instead of brown. He grinned back at his operator.

"Sure is! You ready for the tournament, Lan?"

"You bet I am!" He hopped out of bed and dashed over to the door, opening it and stepping out into the hall. He opened the door for the room across, the hall, peeking his head in.

"Hey, Hub! Come on, get up!"

Inside was another bedroom, where another young boy was lying on his stomach, face partially buried in his pillow. He looked almost identical to the Navi that resided inside Lan's PET, though he wore pajamas instead of blue armor.

"I'm awake, I'm awake! Rockman got me up already." He held out a PET of his own, and displayed on the screen was another Navi that looked very similar to his brother Lan, decked out in green armor very much like Megaman's.

"Well, hurry up! Mom says she's making pancakes!" Lan replied before shutting the door again. Hub rolled over onto his back before looking into his PET screen.

"He's pretty excited for this, huh?"

His Navi, Rockman, grinned back. "You know Lan's always excited to Netbattle! He's probably been waiting his whole life for a tournament like this."

The operator yawned and stretched his arm. "Well, not everyone likes Netbattling as much as him." He rolled to his side and slid out of bed. "I bet today's going to be pretty fun, though. Let's get downstairs."

* * *

In a world where almost everything on the planet was interconnected via the Internet, Navigators were essential tools to people for performing jobs, learning in school, and interacting with society and their peers. While many people customized their Navis to make them unique, the Navis belonging to Lan and Hub Hikari were particularly special.

Lan and Hub were twin brothers, having been born over eleven years ago to Dr. Yuichiro Hikari, head of research at the National Science Laboratories, and his wife Haruka. While Lan had come out perfectly healthy, Hub was rather sick when he was first born, and the doctors were unsure whether he would survive. Faced with the prospect of losing one of their two children, Dr. Hikari decided to take drastic measures.

Based on some research that he had done a couple years earlier, Yuichiro developed a process through which a Navi could be built based on a human's DNA, and have its entire personality preserved. It was this process that he used on his infant son, transferring his mind into a Navi that would come to be known as Megaman; if anything were to happen to Hub, as terrifying as the prospect was, at least he would live on as a computer program.

Fortunately, this worst-case scenario never came to pass. Hub would eventually recover and grow up to be a healthy eleven-year-old boy like his brother, Lan. Now, instead of simply a computerized version of his son, Dr. Hikari found himself with a revolutionary new process of creating intelligent, powerful Navis. The first thing he did was to perform the same process on Lan, using his DNA to form the basis of another Navi named Rockman, and he gave each of his sons the Navi based on the other. The implications of this new process would stretch far beyond his family, however, and would change the face of the Net, and by extension, society.

* * *

After eating a delicious pancake breakfast, the two boys headed outside, leaving their sizable three-story house and heading toward downtown Den City, en route to the DenDome arena. The Hikari family wasn't exceedingly rich, like the Ayanokouji family that owned the powerful AyanoTech corporation, but they were very well-off ever since Dr. Hikari's creation of Megaman.

After he had successfully created the Navis Megaman and Rockman, Yuichiro refined his process to make it more efficient before approaching the IPC Corporation, a company which manufactured most PETs and stock Navis in the country. The company would use his technology to offer what they referred to as DNAvis, custom-made for each user; due to their increased speed and strength they became popular among elite Netbattlers, who would battle their Navis against one another for sport. The money from leasing this technology gave the Hikari family a very comfortable life.

As the two twins walked downtown, they were quickly joined by one of Lan's friends, a larger-built boy named Dex Oyama; he was one of the most voracious Netbattlers in their suburb of ACDC, and he and Lan had their own competitive rivalry. He could often be found downtown at the local arcade, not so much refining his skills as showing them off.

"You guys ready to fight?" Dex grinned and raised up his PET, which held his own Navi, a large and bulky model named Gutsman. "Me an' Gutsman have been training day and night! Your DNAvis won't stand a chance!"

Lan laughed in response. "Yeah, right. How many times have you lost to one of us, Dex?"

"Those don't matter!" Dex retorted. "You just won because your Navis are stronger! Our skills are way better than yours now, you're going down!"

Hub grinned and opened his mouth to reply, when he suddenly found himself attacked from behind by a mysterious creature leaping onto his back. "Hi, Hub!" the mass called out, throwing a pair of arms around his shoulders; he tilted his head up and found himself face-to-upside-down-face with a grinning redheaded girl.

"Oof... hey, Mayl," he grinned, continuing to walk forward undeterred, carrying her along. This was Mayl Sakurai, a kind and outgoing girl from the same suburb. While she was friendly with everyone she met, she was particularly infatuated with Hub, and preferred to spend her time with him when she could. She didn't generally Netbattle, since most of her friends didn't either, so today she was only going to DenDome to cheer her friends on.

"Ready for the tournament? You're going to win it all, right?"

Hub grinned in response. "Well, I'm gonna try!"

Lan laughed. "He'll have to make it past me first! And we both know who the better Netbattler is."

"Two people get to advance to the next level, remember?" his brother replied, as Mayl turned and stuck her tongue out at Lan. "So maybe we'll both win!"

"Yeah, right!" Dex chimed in. "One of those spots is going to me!" The group continued to laugh and chat as they proceeded down to DenDome.

* * *

"And that's the battle! Lan Hikari's Megaman defeats Aquaman, advancing him to the finals!"

Lan thrust his fist into the air, cheering in victory as he jacked Megaman out of the battle arena on the DenDome stage; opposite him, his opponent, a young brown-haired man named Bruno, grumbled in defeat as he removed his defeated Navi from the arena. Lan grinned and turned back toward the stairs, heading out toward the concession area for a snack.

He looked up toward the crowd, where he saw his friends cheering for him in a private box. Mayl was grinning at him and clapping, as was a younger girl with blond pigtails sitting next to her. This was Yai Ayanokouji, one of Mayl's best friends, and the daughter of the powerful Ayanokouji family; she was the one who had secured such good seating for their group. Nearby, Lan could see his father and mother waving at him, and he waved back, grinning.

"It looks like DNAvis are really cleaning up in this tournament, folks! Speaking of which, here comes another DNAvi owner: Hub Hukari, with his Navi Rockman!"

As he headed out of the arena, his brother Hub was coming in through another door, taking Lan's former place at the battle console. He pulled out his PET's connection cable and jacked his Navi Rockman into the console, and grinned as Dex approached the podium as well to be his opponent. Whoever won this match was going to face Lan in the second of two finals matches, to determine who the second person would be to advance to the next round.

As the two got ready to battle, neither of them noticed Lan's opponent, Bruno, stealthily duck into an Employees Only door, leading to the back halls of the stadium. Someone else did, though, and the man was quickly followed by a young boy with a red jacket and black-and-white hair.

* * *

One candy bar later, Lan was grinning and watching his brother's match from the entrance door; Hub had a natural advantage from the strength of his DNAvi, but Dex was making up for it with lots of skill and practice. As he turned his head a bit to scan the crowd, his eyebrow raised as he turned toward a nearby door. His eye was immediately drawn to the red jacket of a young boy standing on the opposite side of the door, visible through a small window, then to the sign on the door that stated "Employees Only".

Lan found himself drawn to the door, wondering what was going on in this hallway. Unlike his brother, Lan had always had a tendency to meddle and get himself involved in things that didn't concern him. This had gotten him and Megaman into no small amount of trouble over the years, though it wasn't often that he placed himself in real danger. On a couple of occasions, however, he had found himself mixed up with some criminal elements.

Mostly, Lan found himself jumping in during situations like cyberattacks, jacking into the network of a store or something else, and fighting off whatever small-time attackers were wreaking havoc. Things had grown quite dangerous just a coupel of months ago, however, when a large parasitic organism named Alpha had taken over portions of the Net, and Megaman ended up trying to assist SciLab and other Official Navis in cleaning up the mess.

It was here that he had come across a very mysterious and intriguing Navi for the first time. This being was tall and colored mostly black, with two large fins protruding from his head, and his body wrapped in a brown cloak. When they initially crossed paths, they mistook each other for the criminals that had unleashed Alpha in the first place, and a brief battle ensued. This strange Navi was eventually chased off by Officials, but not before Megaman had gotten a good look at him, and vice versa. He couldn't place his finger on why, but the Navi felt very familiar to him, and he wondered if they had met long ago in his past. They hadn't crossed paths since that time, however.

Every time he meddled in this fashion, Lan got an old-fashioned chewing out from his father, who didn't want his children mixed up in such dangerous business. This did little to discourage him, however, and he continued investigating these criminal activities if they ever came across him. He didn't realize now just how much they would affect his life, but he would before too long.

* * *

Curious, he stepped toward the door and opened it slowly, peeking his head in; getting a closer look, he realized he had seen this boy earlier in the day, as one of the competitors in the tournament. He stepped inside, ready to ask him what was going on, and the door shut behind him, causing the red-jacketed boy to turn his head in Lan's direction.

"Hey, what are you-" Lan began, before the other boy dashed toward him and placed his hand over Lan's mouth to silence him; the boy flattened both of them against the wall, turning his head back toward a nearby cross hallway that he had been watching. A second later, the two of them saw Bruno, Lan's previous opponent, walking past on his way to some other room, having come from an area under the audience seating.

Once he had gotten a good distance away, both of them relaxed, and the boy in the red jacket removed his hand from Lan's mouth. As he found himself able to speak again, he looked down and realized that this boy's jacket bore a special circular symbol colored in black; this was the symbol of the Official Netbattling Squad, a task force created by the Electopian government to respond to cybercrimes.

"An Official..." Lan whispered, now on board with the stealth idea. "Wait, I know who you are. You're that really young ONB, Eugene Chaud, aren't you?" The other boy didn't bother answering, though Lan was fairly certain he was correct.

"Look, kid, I don't know what you're doing here, but you're in way over your head," Chaud spoke quietly, looking down the hallway at Bruno's retreating back. "If you're smart, you'll get out of here and leave this to me."

"Kid?!" Lan huffed. "I'm about the same age as you are, pal! I'm not incompetent!"

"Will you keep quiet?!" Chaud snapped. "Ugh... look, I don't have time to argue. If you're going to be here, you do as I say, got it?" He stood up, quietly but quickly making his way toward where Bruno had come from, and the young Hikari boy followed.

A few seconds later, Lan could more clearly hear the cheers and gasps of the audience, and surmised that they were underneath the seating area. It was relatively dark without much lighting, and the Official he was following pulled out a flashlight to look around, the beam of light quickly settling on a device about the size of a backpack.

"What's that?" Lan mused, as Chaud walked over to it and inspected it carefully with his flashlight.

"A bomb," was the reply.

"A b... wait, a-" Lan quickly bit his tongue before screaming it out, resuming in a whisper. "A bomb?!"

"Yes... one with a jack in port." The Official motioned him over, and Lan obeyed. "How are you with hacking exercises in school?"

"I, uh... I'm fine, top of my class," Lan replied. "Wait, you want me to...?"

"I have to track down the guy who planted this." Chaud stepped aside to reveal the jack-in port. "I've seen this model before, you should be able to take care of this. Get it disarmed as quickly and quietly as you can. Can you do that?" The other boy nodded, and Chaud turned and headed out the door, ready to chase down Bruno.

Lan turned and looked at the explosive device, taking a deep breath to try and calm his nerves. "Ok, keep calm, I can do this..." He pulled out his PET and connected to the bomb, looking into the screen. "Megaman, did you hear what's going on?"

"Sure did," his Navi replied, taking a look around. "This looks like stuff I can take care of- yipe!" He quickly jumped away, avoiding an attack from a few dog-like Spikey viruses.

"Whoa!" Lan exclaimed, a little louder than he'd like. "Careful, Megaman! Don't get yourself deleted in there!" His Navi nodded in response, as his operator slotted in a Sword chip, and Megaman got to work deleting viruses.

* * *

Back in the main arena, the crowd was excitedly watching the Netbattle between Hub and Dex, which was closer than many had predicted. While they were evenly matched in strength, Rockman had an advantage in speed, which Gutsman had to compensate for tactically, making for an exciting match. Up in Yai's box, there were occasional cries of "Go, Hub!" or "Get 'em, Dex!" depending on who it was coming from.

"Where is Lan?" wondered Haruka, the mother of the two twins. "I can't believe he'd be missing his brother's match." Her husband shrugged.

"Eating, is my guess," Mayl offered from in front of them. "He went back toward the concession stand last I saw him. Maybe he made himself sick?"

"Well, wherever he is, he's going to miss his own match if he doesn't show up soon," Lan's father, Yuichiro, replied. All of them continued watching the match, hoping that the boy hadn't gotten himself into trouble.

* * *

"How's it going, Megaman? Are we in trouble?" Lan watched his PET screen carefully, as his Navi worked on the bomb mechanism quickly, while dispatching the occasional virus.

"Almost done..." He kicked away a Mettool virus, as he carefully dispatched the final exploding mechanism; his operator heard a click, and the sound of hardware powering down.

"Phew..." He wiped his forehead, relieved. "Great job! We really showed them!"

"Yes, you did..." Lan whirled around, surprised at the voice, and found himself face-to-face with Bruno, who had his arms folded and a smirk on his face. "Pretty good hacking skills you have there... too bad you won't have the chance to use them, ever again. No one stands in the way of Nebula."

The boy panicked, looking back and forth for an escape route, but there were none to be found. The man advanced on him, extending his hand menacingly, before suddenly standing stiff as a board, convulsing somewhat. A second later, he fell to the ground motionless; behind him was a visibly angry Chaud, holding his PET in his hand, which had two sparking metal points on top.

Lan exhaled in relief, leaning against the back wall. "Geez... thanks, Chaud. I would have been toast if you hadn't..."

"Did you not understand when I told you to keep quiet?" Chaud replied angrily, bending down to inspect the unconscious body. "Are you not capable of doing that for five minutes?"

"Come on, what does it matter?" Lan retorted, surprised by this anger. "The bomb is gone, and nobody freaked out, so it's all fine!"

"No it's not all fine, you idiot." The young Official rubbed his forehead. "Thanks to you, I didn't get to eavesdrop on this guy's conversation with his boss. Now we have no idea why he was here or what he was trying to do."

He stood up, sighing, and started messaging someone via his PET. "Like I thought, you're useless. The next time you want to help, you can do so by staying out of my way."

"Hey! You... you can't just say that!" Lan replied, though feeling himself get red in the face from shame all the same. He walked after Chaud as the Official started to walk away. "You wouldn't talk to me like that if I were an Official too!"

Chaud snorted. "You? An Official? Don't make me laugh. You're all brawn and no brain, the spoiled brat son of Dr. Hikari. It's never happening." He headed out the door, as his PET connected to his superiors at SciLab. "I hope your brother isn't as thick as you."

Lan stood and watched him go, wanting to be furious at him, but his anger was competing with his embarrassment at having screwed things up. As he mulled things over, however, he found himself more and more determined to prove Chaud wrong. He was definitely not a spoiled brat; he was going to try his best to become an Official Netbattler, to show this boy that he could be just as good.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud, prolonged cheer from the crowd above him; it sounded like Hub's match had ended. He rubbed his head and made his way for the door; he needed to clear his mind quickly, in order to make sure he won this last match and advanced to the next stage. It would certainly show that arrogant Chaud if he proved to be the best Netbattler in all of Electopia.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to begin the final match of the bottom half of our tournament today!"

The crowd cheered again, as the announcer let the excitement fill the room. "I couldn't make this up if I tried, folks! For this last match, we have two twin brothers facing off, for the privilege of moving onto the next stage of the competition! Please give it up for Lan and Hub Hikari, with their Navis Megaman and Rockman!"

The two boys grinned as they walked into the room, excited for the match that lay in front of them, listening to the cheering crowd. They each stood at opposite sides of the podium, extending their PET cables and jacking their Navis into the cyber arena.

Hub looked back at Lan and grinned, ready for the battle. Lan smiled back, trying to predict how this match was going to go. If he was brawn, as Chaud said, then Hub was definitely the brain, the two boys complementing each other perfectly. Perhaps between the two of them, they would be capable of passing the necessary tests and becoming Officials together; he decided he would float the idea after the match. Regardless of how this tournament turned out, Lan knew that his life was going to change from here on out. He smiled inwardly as he looked toward his brother, suddenly excited for the future that lay ahead for the two of them.

"Are the two battlers ready?" Both boys turned to the announcer and nodded, as the man cleared his throat.

"Excellent! Then let the final match... begin!"

* * *

_Author's note: if you liked this story, please read New Megaman Battle Network!_


End file.
